Generali Case Study

Name: Generali Group
Headquarters: Italy
Industry: Insurance

How Generali Group implemented a global share plan for 60,000+ employees in 20 languages across 21 countries

Generali Group in Numbers:

With numbers like Generali, how do you design a single share plan for the entire company? A single plan, available in 20 languages and 21 different currencies?

How do you design a plan that has a benefit so compelling that it motivates 60,000 eligible employees? How do you design it in a way that supports your company’s culture transformation and spirit for the better?

When Generali asked us these questions, we’ll admit, we had to think about it for a second. But thankfully we’ve got 15 years of experience in managing share plans for companies all over the world – so we’ve seen first-hand what works, what the best practices are and what challenges needed to be overcome.

The Challenges

Generali office reception in Paris, France

Usually, with a Group this large, the main challenge is simply the enormity of the Group. +60,000 eligible participants are a lot, even if they were all in the same country. It is even more complex when they speak 20 languages between them, which means that everything about the plan – documents, communications, portals, etc. – would be 20 times more complicated.

But Generali wanted more out of their share plan. They wanted a Plan aligned with their Group strategy and with a significant level of participation and engagement, as they wanted their plan to not just reward employees, but also foster a sense of ownership among them. This meant that the plan needed to align employees’ interests with shareholders’ ones.

The Solution

There were a few solutions that were implemented in what became We SHARE. First, to demonstrate the company’s values and to signal the broader purpose of the plan, Generali committed to donating the equivalent monetary value of one share for every participant, to its CSR initiative, The Human Safety Net, and encouraged participants to do the same.

The Generali Tower in Milan, Italy

 The plan was also made as simple as possible, considering the issues of different jurisdictions across the Group. Participants chose an amount to save each month, directly from their payroll, and three years later were able to buy shares at a fixed initial price with free additional shares (matching and dividend equivalent). Or, if the share price had fallen in comparison to the initial share price, they simply got their money back (protection).

And most importantly, using Global Shares technology kept things even simpler. One portal, catering for as many languages and currencies as needed. And better yet, completely electronic – to make it simpler for the participant and for the company.

The Result

A successful share plan needs buy-in and support from the Company so following the board approval We SHARE was also approved in Generali’s Annual General Meeting with 98.57% favorable votes: a clear success.

The second relevant target is, of course, to reach a significant enrolment rate – which, in Generali’s case, was again, phenomenal. More than 21,000 employees decided to join, with a participation rate of 35.3%.

The Generali employee share plan saw over 20,000 employees participate in the first year – more than a third of the entire workforce

They not only signed up for the plan, but their contributions proposals were also far higher than expectations. Moreover, many participants decided to donate the equivalent monetary value of 1 share to the Human Safety Net Foundation.

With a phenomenal participation rate, Generali can leverage We SHARE to more effectively align the employees with the Group’s 2021 Strategic Plan and foster their sense of ownership.

Employee Ownership, Simplified

Appealing to a wide variety of people with one plan can be hard, particularly for a large company that wants to use share plans to support the cultural transformation.

Often, it can be easy to build more and more complexity into their plan – more features, more benefits, more ways for different people to save. We’ve seen companies chase that plan design to the point of no return – a sprawling, confusing mess of a plan that ultimately confuses participants and discourages them from participating.

But share plans don’t need to be complicated to be powerful. In fact, in larger companies, the simpler the plan is, the better it is. At least, it is if you have experts like here in Global Shares who can help you choose the exact plan you need.

A simple share plan that is well designed.

That’s all it takes to transform your company.

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